It’s going to be one hell of an Australian party at the Oscars this year, after Australian director George Miller’s thrilling, smash-up derby of a movie Mad Max: Fury Road was showered with Academy Awards nominations this morning.
The rocking film, starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, has been nominated in ten categories, placing it just behind The Revenant, which was nominated for 12 Oscars.
Miller, who heard the news at home in Sydney, said he was ‘doing happy jigs’ at the news, as was his wife of more than 20 years, Margaret Sixel, who also received a nomination for film editing.
Fury Road, the fourth film in the franchise that launched Mel Gibson’s career, is in the hunt for Best Picture, while Miller, 70, was personally nominated for Best Director.
Cinematographer John Seale was nominated for his work on the film, as were production designers Colin Gibson and Lisa Thompson; sound mixer Ben Osmo; sound editor David White; makeup and hair artists Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin; plus there were nods for Andrew Jackson and Dan Oliver for visual effects; and Jenny Beavan for costume design.
Australia’s previous record for nominees was Baz Lurhmann’s Moulin Rouge, which was nominated for 13 awards.
Miller, who won his first Oscar for Happy Feet, told reporters he wasn’t expecting his post-apocalypse film to be honored at the Academy Awards, let alone receive the second most nominations of any film this year.
“It’s a party I didn’t expect to be invited to,’ he said, “Needless to say we’re doing little happy jigs and it’s really nice to be invited to the party.”
Just Alejandro Inarritu and Leonardo DiCaprio’s collaboration, The Revenant, with 12, scored more nominations.
The first Mad Max movie opened doors in Hollywood for countless young Australians. Miller is due to be honoured with an award for his contribution to the film industry at the Federal government’s annual G’Day USA gala in Hollywood next week.
Miller shot the fourth installment of Mad Max in Namibia, and at Fox Studios in Sydney.
Miller told the US media last week that he wasn’t planning on making any more Mad Max movies because Fury Road was ‘forever getting completed. If you finish one in a year, it’s considered a leap of faith. Start, stop, start again. … I’ve shot in Australia in a field of wild flowers and flat red earth when it rained heavily forever. We had to wait 18 months and every return to the US was 27 hours. Those Mad Maxes take forever. I won’t do those anymore.”
Mad Max is up for best picture against The Revenant, The Martian, Room, Spotlight, Brooklyn, The Big Short and Bridge of Spies.
Also nominated yesterday was Cate Blanchett, for best actress for her romantic-drama Carol.
Cate already has two Oscars. If she wins three, she’ll be up there with Meryl Streep, although still behind the great Katharine Hepburn, who won four.
Leonardo diCaprio has been nominated for his role as a trapper mauled by a bear in The Revenant. Leo has never won an Oscar, and he’s the hot favourite, given so many people believe that he should have won one by now.
The 88th Academy Awards will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on February 28.
Nominations for the 88th Academy Awards:
Performance by an actor in a leading role
• Bryan Cranston in “Trumbo”
• Matt Damon in “The Martian”
• Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Revenant”
• Michael Fassbender in “Steve Jobs”
• Eddie Redmayne in “The Danish Girl”
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
• Christian Bale in “The Big Short”
• Tom Hardy in “The Revenant”
• Mark Ruffalo in “Spotlight”
• Mark Rylance in “Bridge of Spies”
• Sylvester Stallone in “Creed”
Performance by an actress in a leading role
• Cate Blanchett in “Carol”
• Brie Larson in “Room”
• Jennifer Lawrence in “Joy”
• Charlotte Rampling in “45 Years”
• Saoirse Ronan in “Brooklyn”
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
• Jennifer Jason Leigh in “The Hateful Eight”
• Rooney Mara in “Carol”
• Rachel McAdams in “Spotlight”
• Alicia Vikander in “The Danish Girl”
• Kate Winslet in “Steve Jobs”
Best animated feature film of the year
• “Anomalisa” Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
• “Boy and the World” Alê Abreu
• “Inside Out” Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
• “Shaun the Sheep Movie” Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
• “When Marnie Was There” Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura
Achievement in cinematography
• “Carol” Ed Lachman
• “The Hateful Eight” Robert Richardson
• “Mad Max: Fury Road” John Seale
• “The Revenant” Emmanuel Lubezki
• “Sicario” Roger Deakins
Achievement in costume design
• “Carol” Sandy Powell
• “Cinderella” Sandy Powell
• “The Danish Girl” Paco Delgado
• “Mad Max: Fury Road” Jenny Beavan
• “The Revenant” Jacqueline West
Achievement in directing
• “The Big Short” Adam McKay
• “Mad Max: Fury Road” George Miller
• “The Revenant” Alejandro G. Iñárritu
• “Room” Lenny Abrahamson
• “Spotlight” Tom McCarthy
Best documentary feature
• “Amy” Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
• “Cartel Land” Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin
• “The Look of Silence” Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
• “What Happened, Miss Simone?” Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes
• “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor
Best documentary short subject
• “Body Team 12” David Darg and Bryn Mooser
• “Chau, beyond the Lines” Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck
• “Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah” Adam Benzine
• “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
• “Last Day of Freedom” Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman
Achievement in film editing
• “The Big Short” Hank Corwin
• “Mad Max: Fury Road” Margaret Sixel
• “The Revenant” Stephen Mirrione
• “Spotlight” Tom McArdle
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey
Best foreign language film of the year
• “Embrace of the Serpent” Colombia
• “Mustang” France
• “Son of Saul” Hungary
• “Theeb” Jordan
• “A War” Denmark
Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
• “Mad Max: Fury Road” Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
• “The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared” Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
• “The Revenant” Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
• “Bridge of Spies” Thomas Newman
• “Carol” Carter Burwell
• “The Hateful Eight” Ennio Morricone
• “Sicario” Jóhann Jóhannsson
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” John Williams
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
• “Earned It” from “Fifty Shades of Grey”
• Music and Lyric by Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio
• “Manta Ray” from “Racing Extinction”
• Music by J. Ralph and Lyric by Antony Hegarty
• “Simple Song #3” from “Youth”
• Music and Lyric by David Lang
• “Til It Happens To You” from “The Hunting Ground”
• Music and Lyric by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
• “Writing’s On The Wall” from “Spectre”
• Music and Lyric by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith
Best motion picture of the year
• “The Big Short” Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, Producers
• “Bridge of Spies” Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers
• “Brooklyn” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
• “Mad Max: Fury Road” Doug Mitchell and George Miller, Producers
• “The Martian” Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer and Mark Huffam, Producers
• “The Revenant” Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Keith Redmon, Producers
• “Room” Ed Guiney, Producer
• “Spotlight” Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust, Producers
Achievement in production design
• “Bridge of Spies” Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich
• “The Danish Girl” Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Michael Standish
• “Mad Max: Fury Road” Production Design: Colin Gibson; Set Decoration: Lisa Thompson
• “The Martian” Production Design: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Celia Bobak
• “The Revenant” Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Hamish Purdy
Best animated short film
• “Bear Story” Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala
• “Prologue” Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton
• “Sanjay’s Super Team” Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle
• “We Can’t Live without Cosmos” Konstantin Bronzit
• “World of Tomorrow” Don Hertzfeldt
Best live action short film
• “Ave Maria” Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont
• “Day One” Henry Hughes
• “Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)” Patrick Vollrath
• “Shok” Jamie Donoughue
• “Stutterer” Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage
Achievement in sound editing
• “Mad Max: Fury Road” Mark Mangini and David White
• “The Martian” Oliver Tarney
• “The Revenant” Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender
• “Sicario” Alan Robert Murray
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Matthew Wood and David Acord
Achievement in sound mixing
• “Bridge of Spies” Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin
• “Mad Max: Fury Road” Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
• “The Martian” Paul Massey, Mark Taylor and Mac Ruth
• “The Revenant” Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
Achievement in visual effects
• “Ex Machina” Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett
• “Mad Max: Fury Road” Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams
• “The Martian” Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner
• “The Revenant” Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer
• “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould
Adapted screenplay
• “The Big Short” Screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
• “Brooklyn” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
• “Carol” Screenplay by Phyllis Nagy
• “The Martian” Screenplay by Drew Goddard
• “Room” Screenplay by Emma Donoghue
Original screenplay
• “Bridge of Spies” Written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
• “Ex Machina” Written by Alex Garland
• “Inside Out” Screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; Original story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen
• “Spotlight” Written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy
• “Straight Outta Compton” Screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; Story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff
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